This Town
This Town is the debut single by Niall Horan. It was written in March 2016 by Horan, Mike Needle, Jamie Scott and Daniel Bryer, and released on 29 September 2016 by Capitol Records for Horan's upcoming debut solo studio album. The song describes someone being unable to move on from a person they formerly dated. Background This Town is an acoustic pop song. Niall began writing sessions for his debut solo album at the beginning of 2016. He cited legendary acts Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel as inspirations. He explained the writing process of 'This Town' to Z100, stating "I went travelling at the start of the year. When I got back, I was like "Now I’m gonna go in the studio and do a bit of writing because I can and because I want to". Just, you know, for nothing really in particular. 'This Town' is actually one of the first I wrote. "I was like "OK, maybe we’re in a good place here, maybe I could actually do something with this". He also spoke about the lyrics, stating "The first verse of the chorus is pretty cool: “...if the whole world was watching, I’d still dance with you”. I think that’s quite relatable, a carefree kind of line. ”Everything comes back to you” is also quite a poignant line, it’s clearly the tag of the song, everyone that heard the song, before the public heard it, was going ”everything comes back to you” - so that’s the line everyone’s gonna be singing to my face. Horan said his debut album will sound similar to This Town, stating it will be “more upbeat but that kind of vibe — the acoustic guitar, that kind of feel to it, nice strings.”One Direction's Niall Horan releases first solo single, 'This Town' Z100 Interview Release On 28 September 2016, Radio Disney's official Twitter account prematurely posted a tweet saying a song from Niall was about to be released. The tweet was soon deletedRadio Disney accidental tweet. The following morning, radio stations began tweeting about a surprise world premiere and at approximately 11am EST on 29 September, 'This Town' premiered worldwide. The song was released through Capitol Records, who tweeted a welcome message to Niall and celebrated by flying a 'This Town' flag atop their famous Capitol building in Hollywood, CaliforniaCapitol Records Welcoming Niall To The FamilyThis Town Flag Raising. Capitol also erected a billboard advertising the single in Los Angeles and bought ad space on Instagram and Spotify. In an official statement, Niall confirmed his solo record deal with Capitol: "I'm excited to announce I have signed a record deal with Capitol Records USA and released my first solo song. Thank you to all the One Direction fans for your love and support as always. I'm looking forward to the next part of this journey together.Sky News Report" Reception 'This Town' was an instant radio and iTunes hit, remaining at #1 on the Worldwide iTunes charts for three days after release. On day of release, the song reached #1 on iTunes in 49 countries. On 2 October, the track had garnered over 4 million Spotify streams. Numerous celebrities, publications and radio stations commended the track for its easy listening, folk-acoustic vibes29 September Recap. Niall responded to the unanimous praise, tweeting "Guys seriously. I cannot thank you enough for the reaction to the song. I've been doing interviews all morning". Later followed by "Wow, I only released the song 4 and a half hours ago and you guys have it flying up the charts all over the place. Thank you" and "What a day today was! Can't believe the reaction. Crazy shit!! Celebrating with a beer"Niall's TweetNiall's TweetNiall's Tweet All three of Niall's bandmates tweeted their congratulations to Niall, who responded to each oneHarry's TweetLouis's TweetLiam's Tweet. He clarified in various press interviews that One Direction had not split up, they were simply "having fun doing our own thing". When asked if he had informed the rest of the band before releasing the song, Niall confirmed "I just said to them "I’m bringing out a tune, hope it’s all okay. I’m a bit nervous about it, see ya soon." He further confirmed One Direction will tour again, and that his debut album will likely be released in Spring 2017. Chart Performance In the United States, This Town debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #63, after one counted day of sales and streaming, and four days of radio airplay within the initial tracking period. It debuted at number six on the Digital Song Sales chart, selling 48,000 downloads in its first day.Niall Horan Makes History as First Artist to Debut at No. 1 on Social 50 Chart This Town climbed from #91 to #9 on the United Kingdom's Official Singles Charts within its first fortnight of releaseJames Arthur holds on to Number 1 as 1D’s Niall Horan claims highest new entry . In Ireland, the track debuted at #6GFK Chart-Track, and in Scotland it debuted at #2Official Scottish Singles Charts. In Australia, This Town debuted at #5 on the ARIA Singles ChartsARIA Charts. Lyrics Video On 29 September 2016, Niall released a one take video filmed in the famous Capitol Records Studio A. Niall spoke to Z100 about the video, stating "Capitol is a really historic label, the building is one of the most famous around, it takes up the LA skyline. Being a fifties rat pack swing fan, seeing all the famous pictures of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, and Studio A being the most famous studio in the world, having the chance to do an acoustic version of the song was pretty amazing. One of my favourite producers, Don Walsh, works in the Capitol building - he’s famous for a lot of big things, but most recently a lot of John Mayer records - that was cool to work with him, he wanted to work on the song. It was just good to be in that building and do it acoustically. It was something for the fans, I just wanted to drop it all at the same time, here’s the song, here’s an acoustic version of it, you can go on iTunes, you can go on Spotify, you can do whatever you want, so I just kinda wanted to do it that way."Z100 Interview On October 14, Niall uploaded a Behind The Scenes featurette to his YouTube channel: Live Performances References Category:Singles Category:Songs Category:Songs with music videos